Hi all, I am happy to announce that the [ALPM][0] (Arch Linux Package Management) project receives funding from the [Sovereign Tech Agency][1] for work on the Arch Linux packaging ecosystem.
The Sovereign Tech Agency supports the development, improvement, and maintenance of open digital infrastructure. Its goal is to sustainably strengthen the open source ecosystem, focusing on security, resilience, technological diversity, and the people behind the code.
The investment from the Agency's Sovereign Tech Fund provides financing for four developers to work on the ALPM project in a part time capacity over the course of 15 months. The developers are [Arne Christian Beer][2], [Heiko Schäfer][3], [Orhun Parmaksız][4] and [David Runge (myself)][5]. Work on the project has started in October 2024 and the funding continues until the end of 2025. The ALPM project provides specifications, as well as Rust libraries and tools. Its goals are robust integration for all package creation, validation and installation tasks, repository management, as well as drop-in replacements or alternatives for some facilities provided by [pacman][6]. The investment through the Sovereign Tech Fund supports multiple milestones, which are explained below. ## Formal specifications for packaging data formats The Arch Linux packaging ecosystem uses underspecified/undocumented file and metadata types, yet we need to be able to use them reliably in other contexts such as package creation, build and package repository management tooling. Therefore this milestone involves developing versioned specifications for all low-level descriptor file and implementing Rust libraries based on them. These will be based on the existing ad-hoc reference implementations in [makepkg][7] and pacman. ## Basic OpenPGP verification of artifacts Signature verification in Arch Linux package management currently hinges on a stateful GnuPG keyring. This solution is brittle and has already caused various issues related to the Arch Linux keyring in the past. To simplify signature verification - while at the same time enabling the use of a more diverse set of cryptographic technologies - a specification for the [UAPI group][8] will be written. An accompanying Rust library will be provided as a simple and stateless integration, not limited to use in Arch Linux. ## Rust library for handling of individual packages The structure of Arch Linux package files is currently not explicitly defined. This milestone focuses on providing a formal specification of what an ALPM-based package contains, how it is created and handled. A dedicated Rust library and tool will facilitate package creation, validation and installation. These new Rust libraries will also expose a C API for possible integration into the C-based libalpm library. ## Rust library for system package management This milestone revolves around the use of the previously implemented components by providing a library for package download, validation, verification, installation and state handling similar to pacman's libalpm and will handle sets of individual packages on user systems. A C-API will be provided for compatibility with libalpm-based applications. One specific concern of this milestone is modernizing the OpenPGP integration. Current package management tooling does not allow for scoping signature verifiers (e.g. OpenPGP certificates) for a specific purpose, such as "only packages" or "only repository metadata". The new system will rely on a stateless approach such as the one to be proposed as specification to the UAPI group. ## Distribution-agnostic OpenPGP stack for the verification of distribution artifacts This milestone will focus on a set of foundational libraries, based on a UAPI specification from a previous milestone. These libraries will add support for PGPKI (aka the “Web of Trust”) in the generic directory structure for OpenPGP certificates used for the verification of distribution artifacts. The libraries mentioned above will be integrated into the ALPM context to allow for example the full verification of packages and repository metadata. A Rust-based solution will be provided as a modern alternative to the current GnuPG-based approach. # The outcome(s) The ALPM project strives to build a modern, sustainable, maintainable and memory-safe framework for the Arch Linux packaging ecosystem. This framework will enable robust and predictable integration for all package related tooling and libraries. The project goals are intentionally ambitious while being constrained to a relatively short period of time. The work is organized so that real world benefits will happen early and often. Several infrastructure related projects have already reached out with a concrete interest to make use of libraries created in the first phase of the project. The work will be done in the open, on the [Arch Linux GitLab][0]. Everyone and anyone is welcome to join in and help out! My sincerest thanks go to the Sovereign Tech Agency for commissioning dedicated work on the ALPM project. Best, David [0]: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/alpm/alpm [1]: https://www.sovereign.tech/ [2]: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/nukesor [3]: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/heiko [4]: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/orhun [5]: https://gitlab.archlinux.org/dvzrv [6]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/pacman [7]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Makepkg [8]: https://uapi-group.org